Devices for determining the concentrations of gas components in a breathing gas mixture are used, among other things, to determine concentration values of carbon dioxide exhaled by patients. DE 10047728 B4 describes a sensor for measuring carbon dioxide, laughing gas and anesthetic gases. A detector array comprising four optical filter elements with associated detector elements is shown. The combinations of filter and detector elements are arranged around a beam-mixing system. Such a beam-mixing system, shown in a configuration in a multispectral sensor, is shown in EP 0 536 727 B1. Such a sensor system is used in routine clinical practice, for example, in a capnograph as well as in a so-called CO2 mainstream sensor or also in a CO2 sidestream sensor. U.S. Pat. No. 5,261,415 B2 shows a CO2 mainstream capnography sensor. An insert, in which an infrared optical measuring system is, in turn, arranged, is arranged in a cuvette, which carries the breathing gas. EP 0 536 727 B1 shows the complicated manner in which optical components must be arranged and configured in order to achieve an effective beam mixing. The beam mixing has the task of allowing locally occurring contaminations to become effective symmetrically in both the reference channel and the measuring channel. This is necessary to ensure that the ratio of the measuring channel to the reference channel is guaranteed at all working points such that contaminations, water vapor as well as aging effects of the detector elements can be permanently compensated during the operation. The drawback of the solution is, as is shown in EP 0 536 727 B1, that the beam mixing brings about a signal weakening due to the infrared light having to be deflected and reflected in the measuring cuvette several times. This signal weakening leads to a worse signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). To attain the necessary measured value solution, an increase in the measurement effect must be compensated by means of an increase in the absorption length. An increase in the absorption length results in an enlargement of the physical configuration. The requirement for beam mixing and for the plurality of components involved in it is, furthermore, disadvantageous in terms of the complexity and high tolerance requirements of the components involved (tolerance chain) as well as the high manufacturing costs resulting herefrom for a multispectral sensor of the type proposed in EP 0 536 727 B1.